Events Calendar

AME Department Seminar

Speaker: Jay Kudva, President, NextGen Aeronautics Inc.

Talk Title: 25 Years of Adaptive Structures – A Subjective Perspective

Abstract: While ‘smart materials,’ particularly piezoelectrics, have been known and used by the scientific community for more than a century, the term ‘smart structures’ came into vogue in the 1980s. The impetus for the research at that time was sparked by the initial demonstration of embedded fiber optic sensors in a composite laminate. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D investment has been made in the broad area of smart or multi-functional materials and structures. This presentation traces the historical development of this field, starting from about the mid-80s to the present, in three areas:

1. Health monitoring, mainly for structures, wherein sensors are attached or embedded in the structures to monitor its (internal) health, to increase safety, reliability and possibly increase the flight envelope;

2. Integration of antennas and other sensors to provide multi-function capabilities at the component level – for instance provide optimal structural and antenna performance, enhancing overall system capability;

3. Adaptive structures where sensors and actuators are integrated in the structure or the overall system to change shape or state to optimize its performance for differing external conditions such as loads and flight regimes. The rationale in this case is to provide multi-point optimization at the system level, for example to realize wing shapes which could be optimal across a wide speed range, resulting in multi-mission capabilities.

While much fundamental and applied research has been conducted in all three areas, transition of the developed technologies with demonstrated performance improvements has been limited. The reasons for this are many and varied; the presentation provides a broad brush, subjective, assessment of the overall R&D commercialization efforts in the field and a speculative vision of the future of smart structures.


Host: Dr. F. Udwadia

More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming

Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: April Mundy

Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming